"They Don't Want No Pick and Roll"

It's going to take all the Lakers , not just the point guards, to slow down ballhandlers who have given the Lakers trouble, Derek Fisher said after practice Thursday.

Fisher and Jordan Farmar must do their part, for sure, because they are the first line of defense. But they alone shouldn't be accountable, Fisher said.

"The great defensive teams are not only the ones that are great on on-ball defense, but it's really those four guys behind the guy guarding the ball that make the difference," Fisher said. "We're still improving in that area."

So help needs to come from Kobe Bryant, Vladimir Radmanovic, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

After not giving up more than 100 points in any of their first seven games, the Lakers have allowed into triple digits in four of their last six games as point guards such as Jason Kidd, Devin Harris, T.J. Ford and Andre Miller have constantly been able to get into the teeth of the Lakers' defense and disrupt.

"Screen-roll [defense] is one of our weaknesses as a team," Coach Phil Jackson said.

--LA Times

Who can forget the video from a preseason game last year. During a time out, Kevin Garnett was screaming "They don't want no pick and roll! They don't want no pick and roll!"

To emphasize the point, Garnett slapped Tony Allen on the side of the head because he didn't appear to be as fired up about it as KG.

Given the Lakers admitted difficulties defending against the pick-and-roll, you can expect Doc Rivers to join KG in a chorus of similar exhortations as we inch closer to the December 25th tilt against the purple.

Oh, and one more point:

Anyone want to venture a guess whom Derek Fisher might have had in mind when he referenced "ball handlers who have given the Lakers trouble?"

I don't know this for sure.

But let me take a stab.

I'll say he wears #9.

And don't go all Chris Paul on me now. The Lakers already manhandled his team, and they didn't seem to concerned about Paul in doing so.